


The Merc with a Mouth

by LaMorelleNoire



Series: Power Armor and Sniper Rifles drabbles [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-15 23:01:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13623324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaMorelleNoire/pseuds/LaMorelleNoire
Summary: After a long series of events, an annoying reporter named Piper won't stop hounding Kestrel for an interview. On a chance trip to Diamond City, Kes finally relents.





	The Merc with a Mouth

“She’s not bad, you know. Besides, it could be helpful information.” Paladin Danse comments to a grumbling Kestrel, who shakes her head.  


“I ain’t telling some bitch my life story so she can publish it into a fucking paper for everyone to fucking read.” She has her arms firmly crossed.

Danse raises an eyebrow. “Never known you to be secretive about something, Knight. Normally you’re chatting away.”

“That’s different. My past... well, it’s not something I want everyone to know. It’ll chase off clients.” She looks at him, having to look up as he towers above her in his Power Armor.

“Didn’t think you would still take mercenary work now that you’re part of the Brotherhood,” he remarks.

“Me being in the Brotherhood is hardly a permanent deal, Dansey Boy. Why the fuck are you traveling with me anyway? Don’t you have more important duties?” She frowns.

Danse thinks for a moment. “Well, you’re a Knight I’m sponsoring, and I want to make sure nothing happens to you. Besides, you asked me to come along.”

“I know I did, but I hardly expected you to actually get off the Prydwen, considering you’d been waiting for it for-fucking-ever.” She raises her sunglasses and squints, thinking she saw a flash of something.

Danse nods. “I was, but I want to gather information from the Commonwealth as well. I was unable to see much more than our path to Cambridge before we were pinned down by those Feral Ghouls.”

Kes nods. She and some Vault Dweller had heard their distress call and helped fight off the Ghouls. But while the Dweller had moved on to Diamond City after that, Kes had stayed to help, on account she recognized Danse from when she spent several months in Rivet City.

After that they’d gotten some technical shit from ArcJet, fighting several synths, and his patrol had sent a larger distress call. It had taken several weeks, but she’ll never forget the sight of the Prydwen, that massive airship making her way across the Commonwealth sky. She hadn’t had much time to admire it as she had been on a mercenary job.

But somehow, in the middle of the Brotherhood’s arrival, of her being officially a Knight, of clearing Fort Strong, a reporter from Diamond City named Piper Wright had contacted her. She wanted an interview after that damn Vault Dweller had chatted about her. Needless to say Kes had slammed the proverbial door in her face. But damn, that bitch was persistent, even tracking her to the Prydwen. Kes had immediately left the scene in her Power Armor, leaping from the flight deck, but Piper had bribed a Lancer to track her down via Vertibird. That resulting confrontation had forced Danse to step in before things got too heated. Piper then had fucked off back to DC while Kes had been left fuming.

That was a couple days ago. Now Kestrel and Danse are making their way through Boston to get back to Cambridge from the Prydwen. Kes wanted to go on foot because as handy as Vertibirds are, she isn’t keen on a Super Mutant with a rocket launcher shooting it down.

“Knight? Is something wrong?” Danse readies his laser rifle as Kes lifts her sniper rifle.

“Raiders... I got them.” She presses her eye to the scope and three suppressed shots later she lowers it and moves forward again. The shots had been made about three hundred meters away.

As they reach the corpses, every one of them with a bullet wound in their head, blood and brain matter on the ground or wall, Kes begins looting the bodies while Danse keeps watch. “This area is wide open. It’s perfect for an ambush.”

“Lucky for me I have a Paladin in power armor looking after me.” She pats his armored chest and walks deeper into the city. They reach a crossroads and at that moment they turn down either path.

“Knight, where are you going? Diamond City is closer to Cambridge.” Danse says, frowning.

“Yeah, But Goodneighbor is closer to us.” She gestures down the road. “Besides, the Third Rail is the best bar in the Commonwealth.”

“I am not setting foot in that ghoul-infested city.” Danse shakes his head. “Either we go to Diamond City or we find a building to take shelter in.”

“Or what, Paladin?” Kes’ tone is cold. “I want to go to Goodneighbor. I’ve laid claim to a warehouse after someone cleaned them out of Triggermen. Or we can share a room in the Rexford.” She crosses her arms.

“You forget your place, Knight.” Danse strides up to her, a good six inches above her in the armor. “You are under my charge. We are going to Diamond City.”

Kes scowls, but he pulled rank. While she normally has zero respect for authority, them splitting up could prove dangerous, or it could result in a very angry Elder Maxson, and she doesn’t have the energy to deal with that. “Fine. Lead the way, _Paladin_ .” She spits and follows him as he takes the point.

It’s another couple hours until the lights of Diamond City are visible against the darkening sky, high above the walls. “Fucking excellent.” She grumbles, shouldering her rifle and Danse nods to the guards as he enters the city. While the Brotherhood may be new to the Commonwealth, Power Armor isn’t, so they know how formidable he must be to look so comfortable in it. Kes gets some looks as well, but it’s either directed to her steel-grey chin-length hair with turquoise roots, or her bronze skin, made even more so by her time in the sun.

It’s as they pass Publick Occurrences that Kes feels a hand grab her arm and she has her pistol on the offender in seconds, finger tensed to pull the trigger.

“Hey hey hey! I just wanna talk!” The woman has a red leather coat, a scarf, and a newsboy cap.

“Fuck.” Kes hisses as she realizes that it’s Piper. “I told you, I’m not telling you a goddamn thing!”

“Knight, I told you it’d be beneficial.” Danse has a tone of humor in his voice, and she shoots him a betrayed glare.

“You fucking led me here on purpose, you cocksucker.” She accuses.

Danse shakes his head. “All chance, Knight. Although I was aware her newspaper operates immediately inside the city.”

Kes looks between him and Piper, who is still holding her arm, and she sighs. She’s outnumbered. “Fine. I’ll do your stupid interview. But on one condition: it doesn’t get published.”

“What would the point be then?” Piper asks, directing her to her building.

“To get you off my fucking back.” Kes snaps, reluctantly following her. Once inside she sits heavily on the cushioned seat she’s pointed towards.

“How about I only publish what you’re comfortable. You’re a merc. If something you tell me would be detrimental to clients, I won’t publish it.” Piper offers, holding out a Nuka Cola to her.

Kes takes it cautiously. “Fine. And what about Danse?”

“I’ll get a room in the Dugout Inn for us.” Danse could sense she wasn’t comfortable with him around for this. After all, they had just barely started trusting each other with more personal matters. Kes nods and Danse heads out.

“Alright... so what’s your story, merc?” Piper asks, turning to Kes with a pen and paper in hand.

“First off my name is Kes... off record it’s Kestrel Xochitl Chenoa.” She scowls. “My heritage is what used to be known as Native American. My last name means Dove in one of the old tribes... my name is fucking Bird Bird. I hate it.” She stares intently at the cap in her hand.

“Native American... well, I’ll certainly say I’ve never seen someone with your complexion before...” Piper notes.

“History has never been kind to my heritage... and all of it was lost when the bombs fell... save the handful that took refuge in Vault 101.”

“You’re a Vault Dweller?”

“I was. Left when I was 17 without looking back. The Lone Wanderer had made the Capital Wasteland someone habitable in the two years between completing Project Purity and when I left.” Kes takes the sunglasses from her head and runs a hand through her dyed hair.

“Why did you leave?”

“Hated life there. In the Vault I had a handful of life options. I could run my mother’s shop or I could be a mechanic with my father. Most exciting thing I could have done would be becoming a security guard. No idea was favorable to me, so I decided “fuck it” and left. After that it was just surviving the Capital Wasteland for a couple years. Taught myself how to shoot while out there with a sniper rifle I found behind Megaton in a hollowed out rock. Took a while, but once I got good at that rifle... I eventually found a better one while doing Merc work further down the line... about four years later.”

“So you said you traveled for a couple years, what happened then?”

“I joined the Brotherhood of Steel.” Kes says with a shrug.

Piper pauses her writing. “You mean the guys who came flying in on an airship, and are now all over the Commonwealth?”

Kes shakes her head. “No, they weren’t like this back then... er, this next bit will be all off-record.” She watches Piper make a note before she continues.

“In the Capital the Brotherhood was more peaceful. More... more like the Minutemen, or at least what the Minutemen used to be.” She had asked Preston Garvey about them when she met the man in Sanctuary Hills. “That was under Elder Lyons. Then Lyons and his daughter died, and the Brotherhood didn’t have an Elder.”

Piper gives Kes a long look. “You sound sad. Or defeated. Or something. Nothing like the brash woman who told me to fuck myself the first time I asked for an interview.”

Kes gives a small smile. “Well, nice to know you’re perceptive.” She sighs. “I lost my best friend to the new Elder.”

“What happened to ‘em?”

“He was promoted.” Kes says simply. “My friend was Arthur Maxson. We were Initiates together... rose through the ranks, became Knights together... went out on patrols... I was five years older than him but damn was he a good friend.

Then we got older. He wasn’t a bright-eyed fifteen year old anymore. He felt Lyons’ loss harder than I had. Then when Sarah, his daughter died... Arthur had idolized and fancied her. Then she was gone, and he turned jaded. He turned more political. He managed to bring the Outcasts back into the Brotherhood, and got rid of a Super Mutant leader that had been harassing the Capital for ages... but it was saving my ass from a Deathclaw that got him appointed Elder of the Brotherhood.”

“After that your friendship changed?” Piper presses, and Kes nods.

“Yeah. He... he wasn’t Arthur anymore. He was Elder Maxson... at sixteen. His policies became extremely xenophobic, and I couldn’t stand it anymore, not when a Ghoul had helped the Capital so much, being a companion of the Lone Wanderer. So I left the Brotherhood.”

“Seems you’ve got a habit going.” Piper raises an eyebrow.

“Suppose so.” Kes sets her half-full bottle of cola down on the table, before pulling out a pack of cigarettes and lighting one, taking a deep inhale before exhaling the stream of smoke slowly. “The trend continues. I joined Talon Company, a group of mercs, then I got bored of them and left them too. After that... I got bored of the Capital and found a group moving north. Called themselves the Railroad.”

“You’ve met the Railroad?” Piper looks surprised.

“Yeah. Didn’t ask what they were doing down there, but I’m guessing they were helping out some synths.” Kes shrugs. “To be honest I don’t give a fuck what they were doing. They provided a caravan out of the Capital.” She takes another draw on her cigarette.

“Okay, so you made it to the Commonwealth. What did you do next?”

“First city we hit was Quincy and I left them there. Mind you, this was before the Massacre.” Kes adds quickly.

“I was just about to ask about that... so how long did you stay in Quincy?”

“Couple years... I, heh, I actually joined the Gunners.”

Piper freezes, giving her a fearful and borderline hateful look. “You telling me you helped the massacre?” She hisses.

“No!” Kes shakes her head, not sure why she’s so worried about Piper’s opinion... oh wait, it’s because if she publishes that she was in the Gunners that’s a bye-bye to all potential clients. “I left the night before the massacre, as luck would have it.” She assures her.

Piper gives her a long look, as if gauging if the merc is lying or not. “Do you have proof?”

“First time I ever encountered the Minutemen is in Concord, just as that Vault Dweller got there.” She says, hoping it’s enough.

Piper must see the truth in her eyes, because she nods. “Alright... I believe you, Chenoa.” She relaxes and looks at her notes. “So you left the Gunners and made it to Concord?”

“Yeah... well, kinda. I’ve got a place in Goodneighbor. I’ve been in and out of there, sometimes stayed there while on a job. I’d like to think Mayor Hancock is a close friend.” She adds.

“Seems fitting, you and Goodneighbor.” She chuckles and then taps her pen to her chin. “All this, and you’re back with the Brotherhood. Why?”

“Saved Danse’s team from some Ferals and stuck around.” She doesn’t mention Danse is from the Capital too. Then again, that’s where the Brotherhood is from. Piper could probably guess that. “The Prydwen came rolling in while I was on a job and Danse called me back to Cambridge. I joined up with once the job was done and we went onto the Prydwen. Met Elder Maxson again, exchanged some awkward greetings as we recognized each other, and then you found me and I avoided you, and now we’re all caught up.” Kes takes one last drag on her cigarette before setting it in the ashtray and finishing off her cola, throat sore from all the talking.

“You’ve had a busy life, Kes.” Piper flips through her notes, then hands them to her. “Mark anything you want off record with a little dash by it.”

Besides anything explicitly stated as off record, Kes marks her tale about the Gunners, the bit about the Railroad, then her rejoining the Brotherhood. “There. It’s better for business that they don’t know I’m in the Brotherhood.” She says as she hands it back.

“By ‘they’ you mean clients?” Kes nods. “Alright. Seems you’ll have an influx in business after this.”

“It’ll be interesting for sure.” Kes stands and cracks her back. “Thank you, Piper. It really wasn’t so bad.”

“Aw, you’re gonna make me blush.” The reporter laughs and pats her shoulder. “See ya ‘round, Kes.”

Kes waves as she opens the door. “See ya, Pipes.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, and if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them!


End file.
